"Paterno told Penn State athletic director Tim Curley that McQueary had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy." About two weeks later, Curley told McQueary that Sandusky's keys to the locker room had been taken away." -The Detroit Free Press

Really? That's it. Are you kidding me? Paterno and the Penn State brass are told about a young boy being sexually abused and they treat it like some underage drinking offense? Whether or not this quote is fabricated, the fact is Paterno did not do enough. In this case it's not enough to just play by the book. Paterno backers and Penn State Alum will defend Paterno to the death and I guess I can understand that. He is Penn State. At the same time don't for one minute think they would be defending any other coach from any other school if they did the same thing. Sports fans have blinders on especially when it comes to the college they went to.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last week you know about the heinous acts committed by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky to 8 ( at least) young boys during his tenure at Penn State. The acts are the most despicable you can imagine. The fact is Paterno knew that it was happening and didn't put a stop to it. Taking away someone's keys to the locker room? What a joke.
The riots at Penn State are microcosm of what is wrong with society. We treat our sports figures as larger than life and put them on a pedestal. The backers are all talking about how Joe didn't deserve to go out like this or they should've let him finish the season. Why? First off Paterno stopped coaching the team about 6 years ago, but that is besides the point. If this happened anywhere else the person would've been fired. Did Joe commit a criminal act? No. At the same time he knew a criminal act was going on and just filed a simple complaint. That isn't acceptable. This isn't someone cheating on a test. This isn't someone getting a free ticket. This is knowing one of your coaches is having sex with young boys and ruining their lives forever. Yes, these kids lives are ruined forever and I guarantee he did it to more boys because not enough was done.

I saw riots at Umass after Red Sox wins and didn't understand them. In fact I don't really understand riots and breaking stuff in general. This isn't just a Penn state thing it's a society thing. I love sports as much as anyone but why are we so passionate about relatively unimportant things like sports and not about moreimportant matters like a child's well being? There were more people rioting against Joe Paterno's firing than rioting against the the Penn State leadership and everyone involved with these crimes. It's sickening.

Did we forget about moral code? Why is selling a jersey more of an offense than not reporting sexual abuse to a child? Sometimes it's not enough to just play by the book when their are young kids lives at stake. These kids are tainted forever and so are there families and so are there families families. Sure, Penn State is in chaos now, but it will bounce back. Unfortunately the victims will never be the same.

5 Responses so far.

I think you have captured the moral FAIL in both the University administration's actions (or lack thereof) and in the misplaced anger of the response of the students. The whole thing raises a stench that has gorge rising and disgust at an overload level--but then that's the story of the abuse of our NBA passion for the past few months.

Very well-written Karl. I didn't know all the specifics of the ordeal (although if you asked me which backup guard most-resembled singer Michael Jackson during the 80s, I'd say 76ers backup Steve Colter without hesitating) so I do live under a rock, but this was eye-opening.

This whole thing has been a fuck up of epic proportions by basically everyone. Clearly Sandusky is the worst of it. Then the rest in no particular order, The assholes who witnessed this and didnt take action or call the police. The assholes who were informed by the witnesses. The assholes who are in charge at this school. And finally the assholes who rioted in favor of, or supported, any of them. I'd be embarrassed to be a Penn State student right now, but you can bet your ass I would have made the news as the one man counter-riot. Fuck all these stupid fucking zombies who go out and idolize some god damn sports figure in the face of all this shit. I never thought I'd see the day in this country when a crowd of people would gather to actively support and demonstrate for an accomplice to child rape.

Anyone who supports this guy should be anally raped, then have bystanders watch but not help, then have to watch a crowd of people celebrate the guy raping them. Maybe then they'll understand how fucking twisted their perspective is. There are colleges, universities, then there are these rotten sores on our education system like Penn State that are more like sports businesses. They don't care about academics, they are corrupt, and the "students" they churn out become even bigger fuck-ups after they graduate than before they were accepted. You and your parents have to be brain-dead anyways to pay six figures so that you can join a football cult for four years, but think of the end product after those years. Truly terrifying. From the rapist to the administration to the students and everybody involved. EVERYBODY did the exact WRONG thing, thousands of people, at the cost of innocent and defenseless people and their families, all because of how important a fucking ball and two big yellow forks are to them, and they still don't get it. There's no hope for humanity.

The thing about this from my point of view (and this was echoed by Mark Madden on WEEI yesterday) is that half of these kids probably don't even have the energy to get out of bed and go to class in the morning--YET they have the nerve to protest something like this?

I think Gerry Callahan put it best when he said "we all did dumb things in college, and this will be one of those things that they look back and say 'I did that?'"